Milan, 8 May. (beraking latest news Health) – Human cases of avian flu are underestimated. And “if many dairy farm workers contract H5N1”, the avian virus circulating among cows in several US states, “we risk a pandemic”. Jennifer B. Nuzzo, Lauren Sauer and Nahid Bhadelia, three American academics, clearly state this in an article published in the ‘Washington Post’. The measures “rightly adopted” by the Department of Agriculture to prevent avian influenza from spreading among cattle herds in other states of the country, warn the three experts, “will do little against the main threat that H5N1 represents for man: the infection of workers” of the affected companies. “Our failure to protect them,” they warn, not only “puts their health at risk,” but “gives the virus the opportunity to evolve into” a pathogen that would constitute “a greater risk to people, including those who live far away from farms”.
Nuzzo is a professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health; Sauer is an associate professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where he directs the Special Pathogen Research Network, while Bhadelia, an infectious disease specialist, is an associate professor, director and founder of the Center on Emerging Infections at Boston University.
In the article they recall that to date only one case of cow-human contagion is known in the context of the ongoing epidemic among US cattle (the Texas worker who reported haemorrhagic conjunctivitis), but they cite the statements released by the veterinarian Barb Peterson to the trade publication ‘Bovine Veterinarian’: “Every company I’ve worked with except one has had sick people at the same time they had sick cows. There has been an underreporting of the virus” among humans.
Other reports say the same thing, underline the signatories of the intervention on the WP, and “these reports are worrying not because the infections are serious – they specify – but because any increase in human infections increases the possibility that the virus reaches someone who suffers from other diseases and that, if infected, he could suffer worse consequences. And historically – they recall – H5N1 has not been mild in men: out of almost 900 people who, as far as we know, have been infected so far in the world, the virus has killed around the goal”.
“The discovery of viral material in milk sold in American stores”, which pushed the federal government to take more decisive action against the avian flu epidemic among cattle, “in itself is not alarming”, reassure Nuzzo, Sauer and Bhadelia. “Pasteurization – they confirm – although it does not remove pathogens, neutralizes their infectious capacity”. However, the H5N1 virus still poses “risks to dairy workers, who may be exposed to infected cows and milk before it is pasteurized.” This is why “it is essential to protect workers who may come into contact with infected animals from exposure”, urge the three academics.
“CDC-recommended eye protection and masks,” they suggest, “should be readily available to all dairy workers. All states have access to these devices, but training is needed to ensure companies provide them. to its employees and that their use becomes routine”. Not only that: “workers in the dairy sector also need anti-H5N1 vaccines“, say the experts. “Efforts to make them available must be accelerated,” they ask. “The health authorities have stated that the virus circulating on farms has a good ‘match’ with those of the vaccines in development. But they were not clear on the existing stocks – the specialists observe – nor on when the FDA could authorize their use”.
“As we have learned from Covid-19, delays in vaccination could lead to avoidable deaths”, point out the teachers who also raise another problem: “Since many agricultural workers are immigrants, it is necessary to work to overcome both the widespread lack of health insurance and the strong financial and legal disincentives to report infections”.
To protect workers at risk and avert a new pandemic, Nuzzo, Sauer and Bhadelia continue, “greater viral surveillance is needed on farms and in dairy processing plants”. What is prescribed by the USDA, the US Department of Agriculture, which requires “testing cows only when they are about to move to another state”, according to the three experts “will not protect workers”. Not to mention that “the tests have to be sent to the laboratories and this delays the results”. Results which, if positive, “would signal the need to protect people”. Currently, the specialists point out, “the most widespread tests in dairy cattle farms remain voluntary and limited to animals with symptoms, despite evidence that cows can also have asymptomatic infections and other farm animals have been infected”.
“More extensive tests on cows are challenging, but essential, as are more extensive tests on workers in the dairy industry”, continue the signatories of the intervention, specifying the necessary actions: “All those who work on cattle farms dairy farmers will need immediate access to antiviral drugs in the event of an outbreak. Rapid tests need to be developed quickly so that samples can be analyzed directly on farms, rather than sent to laboratories. It is essential to sequence samples regularly of viruses isolated from cows, to intercept any genetic mutations that could improve the virus’s ability to infect humans or evade the effect of antiviral drugs. So far the USDA has been slow to share genetic information on viral samples collected from infected cows and this situation must change immediately.”
“Preventing agricultural worker infections and the uncontrolled spread” of avian influenza “among mammals is crucial – conclude the three academics – to prevent the virus from spreading more easily among humans. This requires active coordination between federal officials, state and local agriculture and public health“.